Support for Displaced Ukrainians: Culture, Work and Education

Project Team: Professor Sara Jones, Dr Irina Kuznetsova, Dr Natalia Kogut

Support for Displaced Ukrainians brings together the research completed in Post-Socialist Britain with two other projects in which team members were involved: Futures of Ukraine and Effectiveness of Support for Displaced Ukrainians. It is supported by the University of Birmingham AHRC Impact Acceleration Account and the Birmingham Institutional Impact Fund.

Drawing on our research, we aim to improve the experiences of displaced Ukrainians in the UK, focusing on intercultural relations, work, and education. We are collaborating with local government, NGOs and service providers and producing three sets of guidance in collaboration with Ukrainian communities:

  1. Guidance packs for Ukrainians in the UK and Homes for Ukraine hosts, focusing on intercultural understanding. The guidance packs have been workshopped with displaced Ukrainians and hosts via two listening events and developed based on their feedback.

The intercultural guidance will be launched at an in-person event at Centrala (date tbc).

  1. Guidance for schools to raise awareness of the particular challenges faced by young displaced Ukrainians, e.g., around bullying, conversations about war, and cultural attitudes towards education.
  2. Guidance on access to Higher Education in the UK that is culturally informed and relevant to the lived experience of young displaced Ukrainians.

The guidance for schools and young Ukrainians will be launched via two online webinars.

Read more about our research here:

Ukraine Visa Schemes

Our research with the Ukrainian community in the UK has highlighted the anxiety and practical difficulties caused by the precarious visa status of those who arrived in the UK following the Russian full-scale invasion. The conditions surrounding the Ukraine Permission Extension announced on 26 November 2024 and the decision to exclude the time spent in the UK on these visas from the Long Route to permanent residency are of particular concern. We are partnering with Simone Schehtman from Birmingham for Ukraine to raise awareness of these issues and to support their campaign for automatic visa extensions and clear pathways to permanent status.

Visit Birmingham for Ukraine for more details.

Media Appearances

Photograph of a flower entitled 'Hope Blooms Eternal'